Ella Baker was an African-American civil rights and human rights activist. In New York City and the South, she worked alongside some of the most noted civil rights leaders of the 20th century, including W. E. B. Du Bois, Thurgood Marshall, A. Philip Randolph, and Martin Luther King Jr. Baker worked as editorial assistant at the Negro National News. Baker believed that the strength of an organization grew from the bottom up. Ella Baker was a hero of the Civil Rights Freedom Movement who inspired and guided emerging leaders such as Rosa Parks.